One of the biggest ways Skull Island teases this is with its post-credits scene. In the stinger, the movie’s stars Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston find themselves in a Monarch interrogation room where they learn that the monsters they battled on Skull Island are not the only giant, mythic beasts populating the earth. Larson and Hiddleston are then informed about the existence of Godzilla and three other classic monsters, Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah. In other words, Earth is positively teeming with gigantic monsters for Monarch to deal with. It’s a very effective scene, which makes it surprising to learn that it was almost cut.

According to Vogt-Roberts, there was a time when the post-credits scene was actually pulled from the film at the behest of Legendary, only to later be restored. As Vogt-Roberts told CinemaBlend:

“We shot that during production, and it was actually one of those things that they had taken off the movie at one point. For some reason, there was concern about it, and I was really happy when everyone decided let’s bring this back. I think that’s what people want to know is happening.”

It’s interesting that the studio initially balked at the idea of including a post-credits teaser at the end of Skull Island before giving in and letting the monsters have their cameos. It seems that Legendary (or distributor Warner Bors.) may have been a little hesitant to promise too much before Skull Island had a chance to hit theaters. Had Skull Island bombed, that post-credits sequence would have played less like an exciting teaser and more like a sad-trombone coda.

To Legendary’s good fortune, Kong: Skull Island looks like it will be a big hit, allowing them to move forward with their ambitious MonsterVerse plans. The brief glimpse we get of King Ghidorah, Rodan and Mothra at the very end of Skull Island will definitely not be our last.